the three elements of a good painter..

[the_allejo05]

hmm nowadays many so called fine artists..(i dont even like that word) dare to represent the wonderful history of representational painting/drawing of the past 500 years. If you know your art history or are studying it , you have seen the marvelous things painters used to do..even those of less skill than the famous names in history..could kick today's fine artist butt, in my humble opinion,hehe.
It is strange ,since our tecnology has gotten us better as a civilization ,most still are in the shadow of the past. I am not saying that fine artists of today do not work hard and bust their rumps to make something different but still they fall short. Somehow our sense of good morality, and humanity is being lost and most painters are picking up just that. A good painter uses his or her hand, mind,eye, and heart to resolve his problems. Many illustrators have their draftsmanship excellent which most fine artists lack..but the fine artists have an eye and sensibility illustrators loose becuse of their use of too much of their minds and lack of study of life/nature . As we know line ,tone and form are the most important of all studies an artist need to balance to be somewhat decent. Line means the study of caligraphy to the point that it become facile..that means lots of drawing, from life, from imagination, from memory, all together. I do hate that some fine artists say perpective does not help you on drawing what you see, well they need to study it further, the same goes with anatomy. It seems they dont want to use their minds at all! Drawing/painting is a science is something already established by all those dead great painters/masters that still teach us mortals when we stand in front of their piece of art. Once you know your craft pretty well that inner feeling that makes you an artist will be free to roam in your art..it takes a lot of time,but who cares..time does not exist anyway. the next element of form how is it studied? hhmm the best way is sculpture my friends there is no other way..period..draw from sculpture the great genious of art leonardo said it and every single painter did just that ..before the advent of abstraction in art. tone is just being sensible to light..copy as exact as one sees it..for a few years nonetheless..how about color you say..hmm that is the beauty of art..that is something personal..yes it has a science and theory that needs to be grasp..but what you see and i see differ..(i meant seeing as watching and feeling at the same time)..study the great colorists ..how with only just that we forget their beautiful lines,tones and forms..the color my friend that color..so subtle and beautiful not the harshness of today!!..anyways..I think many need to stand in front of their work and look at what they lack and go back to being 10 years old and relearn what of those three elements you are missing..somehow raphael could do just that and not just one time....anyways
i go work on my mastercopy today...

[Poohgee]

I didnt bother to real all of ur post but being an artist in the past I guess was a lot harder & U had to really be able to do your stuff to survive.

& I agree with U .. most artists seem to be crap if U compare them to "real" art .. some are very good but then lots arent .

[the_allejo05]

yes.. people are just not bothered anymore..is a matter of understanding..an inner force..i mean come on..we live better than the poor renassaince artists did..we have quick ways of doing things we just dont want to do it.. check the Florence video of PBs ..it tells you just how we as a society close our minds and eyes..

[fishw]

oh please put some paragraphs in there, it's so much easier for my poor lazy eyes to read if there are paragraphs. i'm sure it's all good stuff, i just can't read a big sea of words like that.

oh, and from what i gathered skimming over the post, i gotta say that it's worth remembering that there have always been countless rubbish artists. it's not just a thing of today. its just that rubbish artists are naturally forgotten with time, leaving the good artists to be remembered. kinda like darwin but for art history.

[DavePalumbo]

also, like it or not, public perception is nearly impossible to ignore. There are many artists out there today who simply have no means of getting their art to you. Or more accurately, there are so many artists now able to get their work seen that we are snowed under and will not give a chance to any except those who make it into big galleries, big magazines, etc. because it's simply impossible to sift through it all. For all the skilled artists I personally know who are completely unknown outside my own locality, I can only reason that there are countless more worldwide.

Dead artists of the past, however, are not faced with this problem. If their work was quality, it's in museums, text books, posters, magazines, books, etc. etc. etc. If they were not quality, then the simply disappear. We're left with the cream.

I do acnkowledge that todays artists by and large do not have the same intense education as our predecessors may have, but this doesn't mean that skills can not compaire. There are certainly contemporaries I find just as or more exciting, beautiful, pleasing, or whathaveyou, as the old masters. If it is your taste to prefer the style and craft 0f 500 years ago, then that's you. Personally I'm impressed with about 100 years ago, though it doesn't mean that I must like it more than anything before or since. If you get your nose to the ground, I'm sure you'll find plenty of contemporary artists that share your sensibilities with great skill.

[the_allejo05]

well man sometimes the truth hurts..and is sure not hurting me..

[DavePalumbo]

I don't see anyone else complaining...

[Alzorath]

A few things to remember:

- A lot of things were lost to the sands of time, and only just recently have been discovered from history, this ranges throughout the spectrums of art and technology.

- Among the things that were lost, were lineages of apprentices or assistants to these artists who saw the works during production (unlike us - who mostly see the works as finished pieces). As people died, their knowledge was lost, and only their artworks remained.

- A lot of the larger works back then were actually done under the supervision of a sort of head artist (a lot of major sculptures for example were actually done by an artist and his apprentices - yet still only accredited to the artist because he was the one who directed creation, but may not have been the one to polish the haunch of the horse for example)

- A lot of artists today, are being snowed out as mentioned before, and also most artists find the need to join the bustling 'rat race' to maintain their ability to survive and create art - thus reducing the time they can spend working on these tasks (such as studies). While this was in a way true back in history, society was structured much differently - allowing slightly less stress on the structure of an artist's life.

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I would also emphasize that this doesn't just apply to painters - it applies to artists in general.

And also, I would like to point out that with the movements in recent history that made it so many people believe 'everything is art' - there are a bunch of people coming out of the woodwork claiming to be artists that haven't put in the time or effort to really deserve that title (hence why I personally stand by my definition of art that includes a line about requiring it to display SKILL, not just emotion)

[blacky]

I agree with most of what you were saying, but there are still dozens of incredibly scilled artists out there, you might not know about....cuz the're from Russia. I'd say that St.Petersburg and Moskow have by far the best artscools in the world (fineart and traditional scool). Some of these guys come rather close to the old masters. They don't get real famous though, cuz they are not "ancient, long dead masters" and because they are Russians :(

[DavePalumbo]

you might not know about....cuz the're from Russia

I know it dude, it's all publicity, upsetting as it may be. as Homer Simpson says, "women will like what I tell them to like"

[the_allejo05]

remember that the word artist comes from the word artisan sp? in the old times they were considered craftmen...not the "oh yeah it goes to my head, im an artist, and my feelings come first..nope.." we were the cameras of the past, humble as we should be..i think we are going back to those times..arts and crafts is growing big...